Shoe



Api'il 20, 1926.

H. BULLOCK SHOE Filed Nov. 25, 1924 gmemtoz M Patented Apr. 20, 1926.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFlCE.

snon 00., A coaronarron or massnonu'snrrs;

SHOE.

Application filed November 25, 1924. Serial 110 752315.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HUGI-r BULLOCK, a citizen of the United States,residing at Andover, in the county of Essex and State of Massachusetts,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Shoes, of whicl thefollowing is a specification.

This invention relates to shoes, particularly to the type of shoegenerally known as the ankle height shoe.

Difliculty has been experienced in the past by users of ankle heightshoes, in that the rear part of the shoe rubs, chafes and sometimes cutsinto the Achilles tendon. This difficulty has been encounteredparticularly by basket ball and tennis players, due to the excessiveactivity on the part of such players. Therefore, when the Achillestendon becomes sore, the use of the ankle height shoe must bediscontinued, notwithstanding the fact that the use of this type of shoeis otherwise very desirable.

The present inventor has overcome the above difiiculties to a certaindegree by the construction of the shoe covered by his copendingapplication, Serial No. 716,822, filed May 29th, 1924.

An object of the resent invention is to construct a shoe whic willprovide ade uate and proper support for the ankle o the wearer, and atthe same time overcome the.

difliculty, usually encountered by the wearer,

due to the uppjer rear edge of the ankleheight shoe rub ing, chafing orcutting the leg and the Achilles tendon at or above theankle level.

Another object of the resent invention is to construct a shoe whic willprovide adequate support for the ankle of the wearer, which will alsoallow the freedom necessary for active use by athletes, and which willat the same time, distribute the pressure upon the back of the ankleover a wide surface instead of concentrating the same u on a line attheupper edge of the back of t e shoe.

A further object of the present invention is to construct an ankleheight shoe with a hump at the rear upper part thereof, which humpserves to distribute the pull from the front eyelets over a wide areaand avoids concentrating such pull at the upper rear edge of the shoe.

A further object of the invention is to provide a shoe having cut-outportions in the shoe adjacent this portion.

the sides of the upper adjacent the back,

which cut-out portions form the hump.

Other objects and advantages will be evident from the following detaileddescription when considered in connection with the accompanyingdrawings, wherein:

Figure 1 1s a perspective view of a shoe 7 embodying my invention;

' Figure 2 is a side-elevation of the shoe shown in Figure 1;

and

the sides extended. T

-Referring now to the drawings, the nu meral l designates the sole ofthe shoe having attached thereto the sides pieces 2, which side piecesare joined at the back to provide the quarter or upper 2. A back-stay 3is positioned along the back seam of the upper 2, and eyelet stays 4 aresecured to the front edges of said upper. e Y I The warp and woof;threads of each side piece 2 are arranged substantially vertical and"horizontal, as will be more clearly seen by reference to Figure 2. Thetop front edge of the upper 2' is at about the same level as the to edgeof the rear of the upper and the top 0 the back-stay 3, and each sidepiece 2 is provided with a cut-out portion 5 which dips below the levelof the uppermost eyelet 6. Preferably, each cut-out portion 5 has itsgreatest depth at the point 7 ad- I jacent the back-stay 3, whereby theupper edge of each side piece 2 is sharply inclined downwardly from theback-stay 3 to the point 7, and is then gradually inclined upwardly tothe top of its eyelet stay 4. The down wardly inclined edges of thehump-forming portion extend part way round the Achilles tendon of thewearer. This construction, due to the fact that the cut-out portions 5extend below the horizontal threads which are in a plane with the uppereyelet 6, results in an upward or bias pull being im-- posedsubstantially throughout the portion between lines A B, BC.of Figure 2,and practically all pressure that is brought to bear against the backpart of the ankle of the wearer is distributed over the back of Thisbias pull, for the reason that itis not directly perpendicular totheAchilles tendon, lessens the tendency of the excessive pressure beingFigure 3 is a rearview'of the shoe as used brought to bear against saidtendon. Furthermo're, this bias pull is diagonal with respect to thewarp and the woof threads of the side pieces 2, and results in astretching action of the cloth due to such diagonal ull.

In other words, when there is a strain a ong the portion between A-B,13-6, the cloth stretches and thereby takes up the strain that otherwisewould act toap ly pressure upon the Achilles tendon. As ereinbeforestated, the edge of the back-stay 3 and the top of the upper 2 adjacentthis stay, are substantially at the same level as the top edges of theeyelet stays 4 and the upper 2 adjacent thereto, so that all pressurewhich is applied by the top edge of the back-stay must be, caused firstby the bias pull which extends downwardly from the upper eyelet 6, andthen by a. bias pull which extends in an upward direction; the netresult of which is that the total pull from the front eyelets isdistributed over the area S, instead of being concentrated along theback upper edge of the shoe,"which would result in a cutting action.

The invention is particularly applicable to that type of athletic shoehaving a rub-.. ber sole and a canvas u per, where the top of the upperis a little ailove the ankle bone. The Achilles tendon is probably mostexposed at aboutthe level of the ankle bone, and the cut'out portions ofthe side pieces 2 are at about this level, although the level of saidcut-out portions may be varied.

It should, however, be distinctly understood that the invention is notlimited to The essence of the invention is a hump at the rear upper partof the shoe which serves to distribute the ull from the front eyeletsover a fairly wi e area, and so avoidsconce trating such pull at theupper edge of the shoe.

While I have illustrated my invention in detail, it should be understoodthat the same may be carried out in various ways as expressed in thefollowing claim.

What I claim is:

An ankle height shoe having an upper of woven material withsubstantially vertical and horizontal threads, a back-stay, front stayseach provided with a series of fastening means, the top of the upperadjacent the front stays being in substantially the same horizontalplane as the top of the upper adjacent the rear stay, opposite sides ofsaid upper being provided with cut-out portions which have theirgreatest depth extending below the horizontal threads of the wovenmaterial opposite the upper fastening means 01' the series, whereby abias pull is applied upon a portion of the back-stay below the upperedge thereof.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

HUGH BULLOCK.

